Difference between "aún" and "todavia" in respect to impatience/annoyance in negative statements?

Question

In English you can say

She hasn't done the homework yet.

and

She still hasn't done the homework.

to convey that she still has to do her homework. However, the latter one may connote a touch of impatience or annoyance. Same is possible in, for instance, German where adding the adverb immer makes the sublte difference.

Sie hat ihre Hausaufgaben noch nicht gemacht.
Sie hat ihre Hausaufgaben noch immer nicht gemacht.

Again the latter one expresses irritation about the fact that the homework isn't done yet.

So, what about Spanish? Does using one over the other imply a sense of impatience and annoyance, respectively? Or would you, as in German, add another adverb? Or can you tell only by the tone of the voice?

Answer 1

The nuances work in the same fashion as the English sentences.

1. We use aún and todavía interchangeably along with the present perfect (aka in Spanish pretérito perfecto compuesto) to show that something expected hasn't happened.
   Unlike English, the position of yet can be placed in any part of the sentence. It depends on how we'd like to express it.

   1. Ella no ha terminado su tarea aún/todavía. (We expect her to do it sometime. There's no rush.)
   2. Ella no ha terminado aún/todavía su tarea. (We thought she'd be a bit faster.)
   3. Ella aún/todavía no ha terminado su tarea. (We're running out of patience.)

2. However, when constructing a question, there's often an annoyance implicitly implying can you please do it?

   1. ¿Aún/Todavía no ha terminado su tarea? (We're thinking this is terrible.)
   2. ¿No ha terminado su tarea aún/todavía? (Same focus.)

3. We do not use aún/todavía in affirmative sentences or when the question does not include a negative part.

   1. Ella ha terminado tu tarea aún/todavía. (= the action is completed.)
   2. ¿Ha terminado su tarea aún/todavía? (This is better asked by using the present simple: ¿Aún/Todavía termina su tarea?)

Answer 2

The tone of voice is very important to show impatience but I think the sentences in spanish are very similar to the english examples and those are:

Ella no ha hecho la tarea. = She hasn't done the homework.

Ella no ha hecho la tarea todavía = She hasn't done the homework yet.

When you use "yet" (todavía) you are getting impatient or annoyed about the fact.

When you're really getting mad you may put even more emphasis on the "todavia" saying

Y todavía no ha hecho la tarea.

In this case by moving "todavía" to the beginning you are getting the meaning of "still" in your second example.